User:Potelarius

PCORI-AHRQ sourcing
In spring 2023 I am participating in a 6-week Wiki Scientists course with Wiki Education. We are learning to edit Wikipedia in order to add citations from PCORI-AHRQ systematic reviews. As a participant, I will receive a $250 honorarium from PCORI. These funds are intended to motivate professionals to contribute to public knowledge. PCORI has not and will not direct participants to edit specific articles or to advance a particular point of view. All participants will receive detailed instruction concerning Wikipedia's conflict of interest policy (as well as other policies and guidelines). If you have questions about the program, please contact User:Will (Wiki Ed). If you have comments about my contributions, please leave Will a message.

Drafting
Not to be confused with Tenonitis or Tendinitis. Tendinopathy is a term which describes chronic degeneration and damage to a tendon. As a result of this damage, use of the affected tendon becomes painful, and this leads to impaired function. Most commonly, the damage to the affected tendon has an insidious onset, and results from a change in the amount, or nature, of repetitive stress to which the affected tendon has been subjected. When a tendon is not sufficiently prepared to handle these new levels of stress, it suffers microtrauma and tissue damage. When microtrauma initially occurs within the tendon, a cellular response, referred to as a healing response, is initiated for the purpose of repairing the damage that has occurred. Tendinopathy develops when that healing response fails to adequately repair the damage, leaving the tendon in a persistent state of disrepair.

Occasionally, tendinopathy will occur after an acute injury, but in this setting, the acute event happens to a tendon which usually has already had some degree of pre-existing damage. One less common cause of tendinopathy, but one which is important to be aware of, is the use of quinolone antibiotics. Use of these medications has been associated with the development of tendinopathy, particularly in the Achilles tendon.

Tendinopathy most commonly affects those tendons that experience highly repetitive stress, with levels of load that are relatively high when compared to loads that the tendon typically sees. Frequently affected tendons include: the rotator cuff in the shoulder, the common extensor and common flexor tendons of the elbow (often referred to as tennis elbow and golfer's elbow respectively), the proximal hamstring tendons, the gluteus medius tendon at the outer aspect of the hip, the patellar tendon of the knee, and the Achilles tendon. In the foot, the plantar fascia can develop the same pathologic condition, even though it is not actually a tendon. This is because it is made of the same type of tissue as a tendon, and it is subjected to to the same kinds of repetitive loading as a tendon.

Groups at risk include people who do manual labor, musicians, and athletes. Diagnosis is typically based on symptoms, examination, and occasionally medical imaging. A few weeks following an injury little inflammation remains, with the underlying problem related to weak or disrupted tendon fibrils.

Treatment may include rest, NSAIDs, splinting, and physiotherapy. Less commonly steroid injections or surgery may be done. About 80% of patients recover completely within six months. Tendinopathy is relatively common. Older people are more commonly affected. It results in a large amount of missed work.